A Popular Edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Diaries - Expectations, Problems and Methods

Antje Mayfarth

(summary for pages 329-36)

In this paper I present some observations made during the
preparation of a new two volume edition of Hans Christian
Andersen's diaries for German readers. A first German edition by
Heinz Barüske came out in 1980 (Fischer Taschenbuchverlag).

Two topics will be discussed:

criteria for selection when aiming at a large German Andersen
audience who hardly know more than his fairy tales,

problems of literary translation.

As Andersen's diaries are considered the most important source
of facts about his life, the question arises as to the way in which an
abundance of observations of contemporary social life and his
reflections on it can be reduced from ten volumes to two.

In my opinion the criteria for selecting must be
subjective.

There are two ways of arranging a popular edition:

To present the selection of Andersen's diaries independently
of his other books as Heinz Barüske did. Barüske started with
the author's first notes from Meisling's Latin school and ended
with those from his triumphal journey through Germany in 1844-45. This
implies that only a few notes about Andersen's later years appear.
Barüske was concentrating on Andersen's struggle for
recognition as a poet throughout Europe.

To present the diaries as part of Andersen's other books,
which have been edited by Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig. In this case the
diaries are related to the author's travel books, to his
autobiography and to his fairy tales. Different criteria for selecting
are needed. We need not focus on primary biographical facts, but rather
on Andersen's reflections: his reaction to contemporary
intellectual and cultural trends, the history of literary relations,
his contacts with other poets and with his readers at home and abroad.
This alternative is useful for elucidating Andersen's remarks about
his own literary production. Although these are few, they form the
basis for discovering when, where, and under what conditions he wrote.
Andersen's reaction to the reception of his works in Denmark and
abroad is emphasized.

Furthermore the paper deals with the following problems:

how to present various aspects of Andersen, what he reveals
about himself as a stylist, as a traveller, as a person who observed
his surroundings, went to theatres and museums, as a reviewer of his
reviewers, and so on;

how to maintain a balance in Andersen's style, which is
alternated between poetically formed passages and others which he
jotted down quickly;

how to translate Andersen's different styles and his moods:
it would be inappropriate to translate the text freely from Danish into
German.

Finally there will be a comment about the editorial arrangement of
such a selection, an index of names and annotations prepared as an aid
for readers.